“We need more time.” The Emperor liked me, but I was not Most Adored yet. I would need to spend more nights with him to solidify my status. “Or we could forge alliances.”
We needed a champion who would suggest the Noble Lady or even me. But I could not speak that thought openly, even with the Noble Lady. And we needed to find an ally fast. Secretary Fang would not stop pressing the Emperor until he succeeded, and we would not have the astrology chart to help us next time.
“The Duke has only his own welfare in mind,” the Noble Lady said. “He will not agree to have his late sister’s position replaced by another woman. Besides, he hates me.” She sighed. “His late sister was not fond of me.”
“How about the Uncle?”
He did not have the Emperor’s favor, for the moment. But he was still influential in the court. Then I realized he must have been the one who was behind the empress proposal. He resented the Duke. If he succeeded in making another woman the empress, he would gain a powerful ally and possibly crush the Duke.
“He’s from the older generation,” the Noble Lady said. “Proud and conceited. He was the one who aided Emperor Gaozu during the war. I hardly know him.”
“What about the Grand Chancellor?”
“It’s difficult to say. He is a great statesman, a well-known historian, but also a traitor.”
“Traitor?”
“He used to serve my father.”
I frowned, feeling lost. The intricate court relationships were more complex than I had ever imagined. Everyone had a history, a purpose, and a stance to maintain, but I had no history, no supporters, and my purpose led me nowhere.
“Then why did the Secretary support Jewel? Could it be possible that she is a relative of his?” I asked.
The Noble Lady shook her head again. “I know him. He is not related to Most Adored.”
“But she must have known him somewhere or some time ago,” I said. “Is she meeting him in secret? How does she get to know him?” I wished I could ask her in person, but it had been a few months since I talked to her in the stable. Suddenly, I recalled Jewel’s odd behavior there. It seemed she had known Pheasant when he was young, but she had denied she was exiled. She had been lying to me. She was trying to hiding her past. “My Noble Lady, are you aware that Jewel was exiled?”
“Exiled?” She looked at me in surprise. “Where did you hear that?”
“I met her in the Yeting Court years ago. She told me.”
“I did not know. Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“It did not seem important.”
“I have never heard that she was exiled. I thought she was one of the old Selects from the Yeting Court. Are you certain?”
“She told me a few years ago, before she won the Emperor’s favor, but then more recently, she tried to deny it.”
The Noble Lady looked pensive. “If she had been in the Inner Court before, shouldn’t I or someone else know her? When was she in the Inner Court?”
Jewel had waited in the Yeting Court for seven years, and it had been two years since she told me her past. “That would be at least nine years ago.”
“Nine years ago? What was her title?”
“She didn’t mention it so she could have been a minor concubine.” I stared at the Noble Lady with hope.
“Nine years ago, a minor concubine named Jewel… Let me think… A minor concubine… I would not see her often.” She shook her head. “I don’t remember. But with her cunningness, and her returning to the Inner Court for the second time, she would certainly know how to manipulate the ministers.”
“Including the Secretary.” I sighed.
“Now I’m very curious.” The Noble Lady stroked the box filled with spiders. “Why was our Most Adored exiled from the Inner Court?”
I had asked Jewel the same question, and I had heard no answer. But all the same I was excited. Jewel had a secret, and that would be her weakness. If I found out what it was, I would be able to strike back. I could even stop her from taking the crown.
I bid the Noble Lady a good day and then left her bedchamber.
The master’s words came to me: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
What was Jewel’s secret?
? ? ?
I began with Jewel’s maids. I stopped in front of her house more often. To make myself less conspicuous, I dropped the things I carried, a candle or a handkerchief, so I could get an idea of the activities inside Jewel’s house. But Jewel’s maids noticed me and they drove me away. I changed my strategy, bribing them with my allowance, sending them sweet dates and rice cakes. The maids ate them but never had the grace to say thank you.
I began to talk to the food delivery eunuchs, the laundry ladies, and then the eunuchs working in the kitchen. None of them knew of Jewel’s past.
Eunuch Ming. Would he know about Jewel’s history? I found him near the entrance to the Yeting Court. He caught sight of me and followed me as I led him to a quiet bamboo grove near a pavilion.
I put out my palm, where a gold ingot sat. I had five of them, which I had saved for moments like this. “Tell me about Most Adored. Why was she exiled?”